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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Reaching A Milestone

6 months ago almost to the day, you started this blog. You had just gone to the endo that day and she told you your A1c was 8.0%. You and your doctor had been trying for awhile to get it under 7.0. You were angry. You were tired of it being too high. You were scared what this trend would mean for your future. You decided to make a change. You started this blog. You made a commitment to yourself to do better, to try harder.

3 months went by. You counted, you bolused, you corrected, you treated. You broke bad habits and tried to replace them with good ones. You became well acquainted with your CGM, Gigi. You set goals. You got frustrated, but you kept at it. You went to the endo, nervous to see the results of your hard work, nervous that it wasn't enough. But it was. Your A1c was 7.2! You dropped .8 in 3 months! It was the lowest in a long time. You were so happy! You felt accomplished. You did that. You reached your goal and set a new one. Next time, you wanted to be below 7.0.

Another 3 months. You kept up the work you had been doing. Some days and weeks were better than others. Your next appointment approached, May 28th. You were nervous that there wouldn't be an improvement. Mostly because you had been having what seemed like a lot of highs lately. You prepared yourself for news of a higher A1c.

But you were wrong. You know what it was? 6.7%!! You finally made it into the 6's!! You couldn't believe it. "Wait, seriously?!" you said to your doctor. She smiled and congratulated you. You couldn't even remember the last time it was in the 6's. This was what you had been working towards for so long. You were beyond excited. A giant smile filled your face. You tweeted the DOC the great news from the exam room, and your excitement and happiness was returned with congratulations. You called your Mom to tell her the news, she was so happy she was practically screaming into the phone. You smiled the whole drive back.

You did that. You had a goal and you accomplished it. It took years and it was hard, but you kept at it. You didn't give up.

I don't know when you are reading this. It may be 3 months from now, 9 months later, 2 years in the future. Your A1c may be higher than it was on May 29, 2013. Life happens. Maybe you got burnt out, maybe you got lazy. It's okay. It happens to everyone. But do you remember how it felt that day you heard your A1c was 6.7? How great and accomplished you felt? You can have that again. You can get back there, I know you can. Stop feeling disappointed in yourself that your A1c went back up. Stop feeling discouraged. Stop saying you are a "bad diabetic" because you are not. And stop rolling your eyes as you read this. We all have set backs, it does not mean that you failed. You did it once and you CAN do it again. I believe in you.

But for right now, remember that great day. Remember what it felt like to accomplish a goal that you work on every single day and have been for over 10 years. Remember the joy you felt as you walked out of the doctor's office with the knowledge that your hard work paid off. Remember that even when you struggle in the future, and you will struggle, that you can get back to this point.

I'm just now seeing this in the first week of June, and am so happy for you but bummed I missed the news when you tweeted and shared it... Congrats, Reva!!! That's so awesome, but this post in itself is pretty darn amazing too. Thanks for writing this inspirational one. Keep up the great D-management!

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